


Just Medium

by LeafoftheFox



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves Friendship, Ben Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Coffee, Dead Ben Hargreeves, Explicit Language, Friendship, Ghosts, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus is tired of all this powers stuff, Mediocrity, Reluctant Hero, Siblings, There is swearing, he just wants his frozen waffles and to make rent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:48:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24039145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeafoftheFox/pseuds/LeafoftheFox
Summary: Medium:[ˈmiːdɪəm]NOUNan agency or means of doing something.synonyms:means of communication · means/mode of expression · means · method ·the intervening substance through which sensory impressions are conveyed or physical forces are transmitted.ADJECTIVEabout halfway between two extremes of size or another quality; averageaka:That one where Klaus isn't a Hargreeves, but somehow gets involved with them anyway
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 12
Kudos: 87





	Just Medium

**Author's Note:**

> I have been working on this for literal months, so I am very excited to see what you think! :D

Medium:  
[ˈmiːdɪəm]  
NOUN  
an agency or means of doing something.  
synonyms:  
means of communication · means/mode of expression · means · method ·   
the intervening substance through which sensory impressions are conveyed or physical forces are transmitted.  
ADJECTIVE  
about halfway between two extremes of size or another quality; average

He slouched past falsely preppy shopfront after shopfront; eyes glued to the ground. Fellow pedestrians chattered excitedly or moaned their boredom loudly to friends around him. He just remained as he was, slowly shuffling along, trying to avoid drawing or giving any attention.

  
Tie straight, but not too straight. Shirt and trousers clean and to regulation, but not pristine. Jacket. Hanging off his bony shoulders. Average, normal, to regulation, _medium_. _God_ , did he hate that word. It just described him in every way, didn’t it? The suffocating formality itched at him, but he didn't exactly have much other choice if he wanted to support himself. In the end, of course, all that effort had gone to naught. It always did.

  
Another day, another failed job interview. One would think that is utter mediocrity would lend him to office work, but it can be a little hard to focus with a middle aged woman in the corner screeching for the entire half hour before he was asked to leave or the random armless child dashing around the room giggling as though they weren’t covered in red.

  
Coffee. Coffee would make this better. Or, it’d at least distract him for a few minutes. He mentally counted the change left in his wallet. Ouch. Nothing fancy for him then. Maybe he shouldn’t have been spending his money on coffee after the fifteenth consecutive failed job interview that week and due on rent in three days, but he wanted some caffeine dammit! He’d figure it out… somehow.

  
Pushing the door of his favourite caffeine serving little café, open elicited the jingling of a bell and a brief look from the bored cashier staring of into the distance behind the counter. Ah, to be able to drift in the clouds like that. Luckily, his most recent interview had only been a fifteen minute walk away.

  
The place wasn’t particularly busy. There were a few bored college kids with papers spread haphazardly on the table in front of them, the most caffeinated drink options in the place precariously perched wherever they will balance. A businessman sat hunched over at his laptop in the corner, tapping away with a frown on his face and a long forgotten bland black on the table next to him. A- Well. You get the picture. 

  
The place had a tired atmosphere, suitable for Klaus’ desire for quiet at that moment. The real reason he comes here so often, however wasn’t the cheap prices or the ridiculously good cookies he could rarely afford. No. It was the sheer rarity of ghosts in the area. Usually somewhere would have some guy who choked to death there and haunted the place shouting obscenities about poor management or a cashier with a disappointed grandma screeching about how the poor kid is wasting their life, but here? Blessed silence.

  
Klaus shuffled to the counter and orders what he always does: The cheapest caffeinated drink he can possibly get. He gave a name when asked, resigning to it later being misspelled. He handed over the required funds with a wince and went to sit at his usual empty table in a shadowed corner to wait for the staggering employees to finish his order.

  
As he sat, waiting, a wall of black caught his eye. Someone he had previously assumed to be part of the college kid group, due to the guy having been reading over their shoulders, was wandering aimlessly through the shop with all the wariness in his posture that Klaus is feeling.

  
He watched the man cross the floor, idly poking his nose into other’s people’s business. Klaus got this niggling feeling in the back of his head that the person was familiar somehow. He caught a glimpse of a face shadowed by a hood when the other turned to look over someone else’s shoulder. The people seemed strangely unbothered, but with the general atmosphere of ‘too tired to care’ and the respectful distance the man kept even as he watched, Klaus wasn’t too surprised.

  
“Klaus,” he heard one tired young woman mumble to the floor. He almost didn’t respond, so used to the constant begging of the dead, but when he registered that his coffee was ready, he stumbled to his feet and meandered over to collect it. He hastily threw out his thanks and returned to his table, certain that he was missing some important piece of knowledge.

  
He sat and took a few small sips of his drink, savouring the break from life for as long he could. As much as he’d have like to sink into focusing just on the consumption of sweet, sweet caffeine, he couldn’t take his mind off the man who’d returned to observing the college kids who happened to be the most interesting people in the place with their sleep deprived mutterings and constantly shuffling chaos of papers.

  
In his boredom, his curiosity became impossible to ignore and he stared fixedly at the stranger as he continued to sip thoughtfully.  
That’s when it hit him where exactly he’d seen that face before.

  
Was that one of those Umbrella kids? Even wearing that goth outfit, he wouldn’t have thought that any of them would be able to walk around in public without being-! Shit! He looked his way. Klaus turned away, acting like he’d never even seen the other, he’d gotten pretty good at that. He continues to watch out of the corner of his eyes, trying to pin down an insistent nagging feeling that he’s still forgetting something.

  
“Ben was a good soldier in the fight against evil. I only hope he finds happiness in the next life,” a gruff, slightly monotone voice drifted from the old TV hung on the wall in the corner of the shop.

  
“His death is a reminder of how important my academy’s work is.”

  
God, that guy sounded like such an asshole.

  
Klaus would’ve continued sipping idly at his coffee, savouring this moment of calm before he was forced back on the job hunt, if not for the way the Umbrella kid froze.

  
Klaus looked boredly up at the TV, only to start at the picture plastered on one side. A picture of the same guy he’d just seen across the room. Oh shit, that’s right. The guy’s dead.

**Author's Note:**

> Please give feedback, I'd like to know what actually planning things out in advance does to my work :'D. Yes, I know Ben was probably a bit younger than I'm depicting when he died, based on that statue of his, but let me have my dramatic reveals!  
> Hope you liked it :)  
> ~Leaf


End file.
